Bordetella pertussis Identification 

• Clinical sample
• Pure isolate

At least one viable colony

Clinical  

• Nasopharyngeal  swabs: collect on Dacron or calcium alginate swabs only  

Isolates 

• Isolates can be frozen in cryopreservation medium or refrigerated on Regan-Lowe, Bordet Gengou or Charcoal agar.   

Clinical: 

• Regan-Lowe and Amies with charcoal 

Isolate: 

• Regan-Lowe, Bordet Gengou, Charcoal Agar, or cryopreservation medium

• Two patient-specific identifiers required (e.g., patient full name, date of birth, Medical record number)
• Identifiers on specimen must exactly match submission form.

• Ship according to Dangerous Good Regulations, IATA, and/or CFR 49. 

Clinical

• If transit time to laboratory will be >24 hours, use Regan-Lowe transport medium and ship on cold pack. 
• If transit time to laboratory will be ≤24 hours, Amies medium with charcoal or Regan-Lowe transport medium may be used. Ship at on cold pack

Isolates 

• Isolates should be shipped refrigerated 2 to 8°C as soon as possible between 24-48 hours on Regan-Lowe media or transport media.  Frozen isolates should be shipped on dry ice. 

Negative: 10 days 

Positive: 5-7 days

• Material must be viable. Improper storage or shipping temperatures limit organism recovery.
• Prior antibiotic treatment will adversely affect results and patients coughing more than two weeks will likely not be culture positive.

• Insufficient quantity
• Unacceptable specimen type or source
• Improper shipping conditions
• Expired media or collection container
• Discrepancies between specimen label and submission form
• Incomplete or missing submission form.